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I just heard that Dennis Weaver passed away this weekend.
I may have watched a lot more of Clint Eastwood over the last 20 years, but back in the 70's, Dennis Weaver was my favorite "cowboy"-- even if he had to ride his horse thru the streets of NYC!
I managed to tape EVERY episode of McCLOUD off the CBS LATE MOVIE, which was quite a stunt considering I had to get up for work in the morning. (People may have wondered why i walked around like a ZOMBIE some days.)
I got hooked on the show pretty early... during the rerun season of FOUR-IN-ONE, where they did 6 one-hour episodes. Unfortunately, these have NEVER turned up in syndication properly. Some FOOL recut them and spliced them together into 3 "movies", each combining 2 of the episodes in horrific, confusing messes. (4 NIGHT STALKER episodes also got this mind-numbing treatment... but at least THOSE have turned up on the Sci-Fi Channel in their original form in recent years.)
Anyone who's seen McCLOUD's 2nd season, when it became part of THE NBC MYSTERY MOVIE, might almost think they were watching a different show. Apart from the expanded format (90 minutes instead of 60), the new producer took pains to make it less a "cop" show and more a "detective" show. A couple of the episodes you'd almost SWEAR you were seeing a "western" version of COLUMBO (which premiered the same year).
Original producer Glen Larson (who was sued for having ripped off the movie COOGAN'S BLUFF-- resulting in a credit to the film's writer being added to every episode) returned for the 3rd season, and THAT's when the show REALLY took off. For the next few years, I looked forward to my semi-regular "fix" of a new McCLOUD episode. By only doing 6-8 stories a year, they managed to keep the writing & production values much higher than your typical weekly cop show.
One episode in particular that stood out was the 4th season finale, "This Must Be The Alamo". It was a 2-hour story (before NBC foolishly dictated that ALL the movies be that long) and had 4 sub-plots running side-by-side, all slowly leading to a big climax. The storytelling was unlike anything else on TV at the time, and predated HILL STREET BLUES by half a decade!
After McCLOUD, Glen Larson (and actor Terry Carter) went on to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, another show that was many years ahead of its time... and had the unfortunate bad luck to debut during the worst period of tv censorship in my lifetime. Decent idea, GREAT cast & characters, often amateurish writing & directing. (sigh)
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I remember being a kid in the 1970s and watching the CBS Mystery movies late at night. McCloud was always one of my favorites.
Registered: Aug 2004
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The theme tune and McCloud galloping through the city streets was very memorable
From: Adelaide, Australia | Registered: Jun 2005
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McCLOUD actually had 3 completely different theme songs-- is that NUTS??? The first was introduced in the pilot movie and used during the 1st (FOUR IN ONE) season. The 2nd season (NBC MYSTERY MOVIE) the melody stayed the same, but it was completely rearranged, much slower and more "hick"-like somehow. (Just like the stories.) The 3rd year, when Glen Larson came back, they made a stab with a more "urban" theme song, but it only appeared in a handful of episodes. (Others had NO opening theme at all!)
The 4th season introduced the 3rd theme song-- and THAT one stuck! Very "western" in style-- it always makes me envision wide open spaces, even though it accompanied an action montage (the best scenes from previous episodes) in NYC. Man-- I LOVED that song!
Registered: Aug 2003
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